Lehigh County Reassessment Q&A

Answers to questions that 125,000 owners may have about their properties' new assessed value

March 03, 2012|By Samantha Marcus, Of The Morning Call

Q: I got a preliminary notice with my new Lehigh County assessment in the mail, but it doesn't list my new tax estimate. Where can I find that information?

A: The assessment letter should tell you that your taxes are projected to increase or decrease. For estimates based on current tax rates, you should go to mylehighcountyproperty.com and enter the control ID listed in the upper right corner of the letter. You can also call the assessment office and provide your control ID. While they won't tell you over the phone, they will mail a tax estimate to you.

Q: Are the taxes listed for my property what will be on my 2013 tax bill?

A: Not necessarily. The dollar amounts are estimates based on current tax rates. The county, school district or municipality can still raise their tax rates for 2013, which would change your tax estimate. The county, however, had promised not to raise taxes.

Q: How can my assessment go up but my taxes go down?

A: Properties will sometimes increase in value but see a tax decrease because your taxes are based on more than just what happens to your property. The reassessment forces a redistribution of taxes. So, while your property may have increased in value, the value of other properties in your municipality may have grown even more than yours did. Or there were new residential and commercial properties built in your community. They will pick up a larger share of the property tax pie and yours may decrease as a result.

Q: Why is Lehigh County now using 100 percent of my property's value instead of just 50 percent like before? Does that affect my taxes?

A: The county commissioners voted to change the "ratio of assessed value" from 50 percent to 100 percent to avoid confusion. Now, taxes are applied to your full assessed value, rather than just half of it. The change does not affect the taxes you owe, however, because your tax rate will be cut in half to compensate.

Q: I think the county made a mistake. What should I do?

A: You should ask for an appointment for an informal review, which will give you the opportunity to have a face-to-face discussion with an assessor about what you believe is incorrect. You need to apply for an appointment by March 16 and informal reviews will be conducted from late March through mid-June. You can apply in-person at the county government center, by phone at 610-782-3038 or online at mylehighcountyproperty.com. You should have recently received a letter in the mail with a request for an informal review at the bottom. You can send that portion to the Lehigh County Government Center, Assessment Office, 17 S. Seventh St., Allentown, PA 18101.

Q: Why is my neighbor's assessment numberdifferent frommine when we've got the same kind of house?

A: Most likely your neighbor's home is different in small but important ways that matter for the reassessment but might not be obvious at first glance. The other home, for instance, might have another bathroom, or central air conditioning.

Q: My neighbors all have central air conditioning, but I do not. Did the assessors take that into consideration?

A: Central air conditioning will contribute to an increased assessment. Here are other residential property features that will raise your assessment: lot size, zoning, property type (single, multifamily, duplex, etc.), square feet of living space, style (bilevel, ranch, etc.), exterior construction, construction date, number of garages, basement, in-ground pools, number of fireplaces, number of full and half baths.

Q: What doesn't count toward my reassessment?

A: While certain improvements may increase your asking price if you try to sell your home, they won't affect your assessment, including the number of rooms, number of bedrooms, landscaping, new kitchen, finished basement, new electric, new plumbing, deck or patio, new windows, new roof, remodeled bathroom, interior wall condition, new furnace, new appliances, flooring upgrades and fences.

Q: Why did the reassessment affect my taxes differently? For example, my school and municipal taxes went up, but my county taxes went down.

A: The redistribution of taxes is done separately for each taxing body (the municipality, school district and county). Each property's fair share of the taxing body's new total assessed value determines its fair share of the existing tax revenue. With its much broader geographic base, it is not uncommon for the county's redistribution to differ from those for the municipalities or school districts.

Q: Isn't this a windfall for the county?

A: No. The county, as well as the municipalities and school districts, get no additional revenue from reassessment. Tax rates will be lowered to compensate for the increase in assessed value. The reassessment is a "revenue neutral" redistribution of existing taxes to correct the property owner tax base after years of unequal changes in value.

— Samantha Marcus, The Morning Call

Source: Lehigh County, Lehigh County Director of Administration Tom Muller